Is 500 words too long

<p>Is 500 words to long for an essay sent with the Common Ap. The minimum is 250... no mention of a maximum. What do you think?</p>

<p>O dont know mine was 957 long.</p>

<p>No. .</p>

<p>Sounds just right.</p>

<p>I thought that the Common App essay had a maximum of 500 words, though applicants often exceed that limit. 250 is the maximum for the shorter response (e.g., "tell us more about yourself').</p>

<p>Just gotta ask...how did ADad post something with less than 10 characters??</p>

<p>Hm...re: the question...it depends on the size of the field into which you are placing the essay. Some are limited and some are not. I agree with an above poster, thought the Common ap only allowed 500 words. Anything more than that didn't fit in the field. DD found this on a number of her applications, and had to edit her essays. On a couple, there was no limit.</p>

<p>No, for the common app, you upload a document, so there is no limit. The common app only sets a minimum of 250 words, but it does not set a maximum.</p>

<p>While there is no maximum for the Common App Personal Essay, the rule of thumb would be to write an essay in the ballpark of 500 words, not to exceed one page single spaced. I think 250 is too short for that essay. Going over 600 is too long. </p>

<p>Marite....the short essay prompt on the Common App is now about a "meaningful activity and why". I think the max that should be is approx. 175 words as I don't think anymore would fit.</p>

<p>When my oldest child applied, the activity essay could be attached and longer. I recall her basic app of this sort as having two 500 word essays but that has since changed.</p>

<p>Thanks for the update, Soozie. When S was doing his application three years ago, what appeared online and what appeared in print were different as to possible length. I only vaguely remember what the topics of the shorter essays were, and only gave the one above as an example. </p>

<p>The Common App had a 500 word main essay; the Harvard supplement had another essay without maximum length, but S stuck to the 500-word limit there, too.</p>

<p>I agree that when no word limit is given, that a student should aim for a roughly 500 word essay, one pager. Going over 500 words by 50-70 words is within reason. But over 575 or so, or past a page, is too long.</p>